[Introspective] Final results of poll on Elysium instrumentals vs. vocal originals

[Wayne Studer]

The final results are in for my poll this past week, in which I asked my 
site visitors whether they prefer the instrumental versions of any "Elysium" 
songs to the vocal originals and, if so, which ones. And the response that 
received the largest number of votes was (perhaps not too surprisingly):

* "No, I don't prefer the instrumental version of any of the Elysium songs," 
selected by 43.4% of the voters.

Roughly a third of the voters, however, did indicate that they preferred at 
least one of the instrumentals, with "Hold On" being the track that received 
the most votes (13.3%). To see the complete results, please visit my 
"Commentary" site at http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm and click the "Past 
Survey Results" in the navigation bar.

My new survey for the week ahead was inspired by the event that dominated my 
attention (as well as that of most of PSB fandom, I suspect) last week --  
namely, the special Pet Shop Boys concert with the BBC Philharmonic 
Orchestra. This made me wonder whether you would like it if our musical 
heroes were to embark on a world tour with a similar "orchestral bent," so 
to speak, in which they performed with a local orchestra on each date. (They 
would hardly be the first rock/pop act to do so; to take one of, I believe, 
many examples, the Moody Blues have done this on a number of occasions.)

But such a tour would, however, surely come with certain caveats. It would 
probably mean that they would play at fewer, more widely scattered venues, 
thereby requiring a much larger number of attendees to travel greater 
distances. And, given the increased expenses involved (such as paying all of 
those extra musicians to practice and perform), it would also almost 
certainly result in much higher ticket prices.

So, in light of these caveats, would you still want the Boys to embark on an 
"orchestral" world tour? Please give it some thought and then, when you're 
ready, make your choice from the options provided right there on my home 
page.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who voted in last week's survey! And I 
hope you all have a superb week ahead!

Wayne
http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm